These are the dramatic scenes that show the armed robbery in a Dublin jewellery shop in which three trays of gold rings worth more than €20,000 were stolen in just 30 seconds.

Two men burst into Greene's jewellers on Aungier Street just after 5pm yesterday as owner Karl Ryan and his goldsmith Seamus Graham finished their day's work.

While the gunman threatened the staff, his accomplice jumped the counter and smashed his way into the front window display area before loading three trays of rings into a blue bag.

At one stage Karl Ryan threw a chair at the gunman, but with the weapon pointed at him he had no option but to stand and watch helplessly.

Owner Karl Ryan threw an office chair at the gunman, who then threatened to blow his head off as his accomplice jumped the counter and shattered to front window of the shop before loading the three trays into a blue bag.

Both the raiders then fled the scene in a waiting car.

"The first guy just burst his way in the door. Lock itself actually held but the door frame gave way under the pressure," Karl told Independent.ie

"I just heard the bang and came running out from the back room to see the gunman running towards me. I picked up a chair and threw it at him. He was shouting for me to keep back, saying he would 'blow my f***ing head off' as his mate smashed his way into the front window and loaded the trays into a bag," he explained.

"At that point I was just looking down the barrel of the gun. I just sort of left well enough alone and left them too it."

"They seemed to know what they were after, and it wasn't the most valuable stuff in the shop, but it would be easy to dispose of because it was mainly gold wedding bands'" Karl said.

"It was all over in 30 seconds but it felt like hours. They were in and out, smash and grab," he added.

Today the damage to the shop is plainly visible. The glass in the front door is broken under the stress of being shouldered by the raiders, and a glass panel inside the door to prevent people walking to the window area was also broken.

In the window itself shattered glass litters the display area.

"The cash register was in plain view of the gunman, but he never mentioned it once. They knew exactly what they wanted," said Karl, who is the third generation of his family to be a jeweller.

Greene's Jewellers of 9 Aungier Street which was the scene of a robberyThe interior of Greene's JewellersSome of the damage caused at Greene's Jewellers at Aungier Street which was the scene of a robbery

"This shop is here since the 1940s, and it’s been a long time since we were robbed before. It's always a shock when it happens," he explained.

Both raiders were wearing high-visibility yellow jackets and jeans, and looked like construction workers.

One had a blue hard hat on, and the other was wearing a blue balaclava and blue hoodie.

"They had Dublin accents, and the one with the gun was around 6ft 3ins tall," said Karl.

The car the raiders escaped in, a grey Opel Astra with a 07 reg, was abandoned in Aungier Lane near the Cuffe Streeet flats.